CHESTER — It was a storybook start to the 2013 season Philadelphia Union Saturday.

The rest of the story though — tales of missed opportunities and untimely defensive breakdowns — was alarmingly familiar.

The Union dominated the first half and had little to show for it. After the interval, they could barely find a foothold in the game, a 3-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City in the MLS opener at PPL Park.

For all their strong play against the reigning Eastern Conference champions, the Union entered halftime even thanks to Graham Zusi’s 41st-minute tally.

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That erased a goal in the 17th minute that marked Sebastien Le Toux’s triumphant return to the club, his franchise-record 26th with the Union. The Frenchmen did well to control a lofted pass from Keon Daniel and fired a shot that Sporting KC’s Jimmy Nielsen couldn’t get enough of as it squeaked in.

“It was great and fantastic, I kind of never left here with my spirit kind of here and people like me a lot here and I like them just as much,” Le Toux said. “Having my name said for the starting 11 it was a great reception and I could not ask for a better one. I am very thankful to them and I am just very happy to be back.”

But from then on, the positives seemed to all be on the side of the visitors, with Oriol Rosell scoring in the 66th and Claudio Bieler in the 83rd to salt away a game the Union looked to have in their back pockets.

Even the early hero Le Toux was culpable. He missed a phenomenal chance in the 23rd minute, finding himself in space thanks to a Sheanon Williams run down the right flank. Le Toux had only Nielsen to beat, but he scuffed a shot wide of the near post. It was one of 17 shots the Union fired to Sporting Kansas City’s seven, and it came against an All-Star keeper in Nielsen who looked less then comfortable between the posts in the opening 45 minutes.

With a side as strong as Sporting KC, the inability to kill off the game early left the Union susceptible to the odd bad break. They got one on either side of halftime, which ultimately did them in.

Some inopportune ball-watching gave Sporting KC (1-0-0, 3 points) essentially a 3-on-2 advantage in the box just before halftime. Benny Feilhaber’s initial shot was straight into the gut of goalkeeper Zac MacMath. The rebound, though, found the boot of Graham Zusi, who lashed a shot into the roof of the net with MacMath stranded and defenders Jeff Parke and Raymon Gaddis helplessly manning the goalposts.

It was a goal that completely changed the complexion of the game.

“We took our foot off the gas for sure in that last little bit of the second half,” Union manager John Hackworth said. “We felt like we created the chances and were dictating the game, and it’s a couple tiny plays that seem so inconsequential, and yet they lead to something. … We had them on the ropes, and we let them off.”

“What we didn’t have to do was come out in the second half and chase the game,” Sporting Kansas City boss and South Jersey native Peter Vermes said. “We knew that they were going to have to push forward to try to win it being that it was their home opener. It opened the game up for us a little bit.”

The breaks continued to go against the Union after halftime. A borderline foul call on Williams after a clash of shoulders with substitute C.J. Sapong gave the visitors a free kick from 24 yards out. Zusi’s curler found the head of an unmarked Rosell, and the Barcelona youth product buried one past MacMath, who came out to contest but couldn’t get a fist to it.

“It was a really good ball in by Zusi,” MacMath said. “I felt like it dipped a little bit, maybe with the wind. I thought I could get there in time, but their player got their first obviously and had an open net.”

With the Union (0-1-0, 0 points) chasing an equalizer, Jack McInerney came on and provided a spark. His header across the face of goal nearly forced Aurelien Collin into an own goal in the 77th, and he called Nielsen into action two minutes later with a header the Danish goalkeeper chested away.

But the finishing blow that so evaded the Union in the first was found by Bieler in the 83rd. The highly touted Argentine forward collected a pass from Chance Myers at the top of the box on another move started by Zusi and buried a shot to the far post past MacMath, who was rooted to the spot.

It leaves the Union, energized from the start, sporting their new third jerseys in the first season opener at home in the franchise’s four years of existence, facing an early regrouping process.

“We’re extremely disappointed,” Hackworth said. “We feel like we let the fans down. We feel like we let ourselves down. In a game where we felt like we should have been up by at least a couple of goals to give one up in the last five minutes of the first half is so far from what we have worked on and worked very hard to try to negate.”